Police Accountability

Police Accountability

1. Governance

   • Refers to systems in place for monitoring the police
     • Refers to the idea of control or direction, which may be more or less direct

2. Is an element of governance thus involves a relationship between two parties, structured by obligation

   • Definition: To be unda duty to answer to someone for your actions, that duty implying the possibility of a disciplinary action against you if your actions are disapproved of by the person to which you are accountable

3. Key ideas

   • The police are non-political; they cannot be given orders on how to enforce the law.
     • Many criminological studies argue that the police are not sufficiently accountable.
       • Levels of accountability: Legal and democratic accountability

4. Legal accountability

   • The adequacy of the law in protecting citisens against police abuse of power e.g. on the street and in police stations
     • The adequacy of the legal mechanism in place for investigating the police when they are alleged to have abused their powes.
       • The effectiveness of he police complaints system

5. Democratic accountability

   • Governance typically involves some relationship between control and accountability
     • Statutory authorities representing the public are subjected to two mechanisms: 1) Control: extends between the person/institution and the controlled statutoauthority to ensure that it acts or does not act in certain way. 2) Answerability or accountability mechanism- provides information to the controller and may indicate when controlling mechanism needs to be brought into play.

6. Legal framwork

   • Police act 1964; Police and Magistrates Courts Act, 19 Police Act, 1996; Police Reform Act, 2002; Green Paper on policing; 2003, Police reform and social responsibility Act, 2011; Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill, 2015, 2016.

7. History: Tripartite police accountability (1964-2012)

   • Home Secretary- Chief police officers- Police authorities
   • Police act 1964 establishes tripartite system- efficiency; policing by public consent; respect for the operational autonomy of the police